Saturday, July 19, 2014

When priests say that it is important to "meet the people where they are at", there is a hidden judgment. They are assuming that the priests are far better than the people, that priests are high and people are low, so that the priests have to stoop down to "meet the people".

Contrary to this modern idea about preaching, Jesus says that the sower scatters the same seed on all the ground - not just on the ground that seems good to him.
If a priest refuses to preach about the "hard teachings" (contraception, abortion, women's ordination, adoration, etc), he is failing in generosity and pronouncing judgement on his people - assuming that they are poor soil which won't bear fruit anyways and therefore that they don't deserve to receive the fullness of the Church's teachings.

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

If it is possible to criticize the Pope while loving the Papacy (as did St Catherine of Siena), then it is also possible to praise the Pope while hating the Papacy. This is exactly what many are doing when they praise Pope Francis.
"I like this new Pope, he is going to change things!" or "Pope Francis is great, because he breaks the rules and washes women's feet!" -- These and other "praises" completely misunderstand Pope Francis, but are actually acts of hatred for the Papacy and the Catholic Church.

God didn't give us a Pope to change things, the job of the Pope is to keep things the same -- The same faith, the same Church!